The Rocky Horror Election Show

On July 23 Kyrgyz people have been called to poll station to decide who's going to be their President for next 5 years.

Against all expectations, Presidential Apparatus played a fair and transparent game.

No land for minors, women and disabled...

For all of you (probably none) who are wondering what happened to the poor 32 people arrested, tortured, prosecuted and sentenced for Nookat events, here you have the (un)happy ending.

Now, their only hope is with the High Commissioner for Human Rights and international community to intervene advocating on their behalf.

Mountain bykes, pictures, memories and hopes

When I entered my new office the first time, there was only Nuriana and Natalia. I already knew it; all the others were in Geneva for a series of meeting, and I would have met them just one week later.

In a moment of chatting, Nuriana asked me if I did suffer from cultural shock at my arrival. Apparently, they were appalled by my denial and they probably didn't totally believe me.

After, Natalia started telling me that many many people are not even aware of Kyrgyzstan, but that they often fell in love with the country to such an extent they won't leave it anymore.

To be honest, apart for confirming me in my previous hypotesis, this affirmation left me a bit skeptical; I can believe this is a beautiful country as all the world - or at least the people who haver been here - say, but to be charmed till living here forever... well, let's just say this is another story.

Now I know she was right.

No, I didn't fell head over heels for this place; not yet at least. But Oskar did. Hopelessly.

Oskar is the Human Rights Advisor sent to Bishkek two years ago in the framework of the Action 2 Programme of OHCHR. He's an Austrian man fond of all mountain sports: Climbing, Trekking, Hiking, Paragliding, Canoe-Kayak, Rafting, and many more. He spent every single moment of leisure time exploring the country and practicing these sports, liasing with local sportsmen and trainers and discovering the most remote corners of Kyrgyzstan.

Now, the Action 2 programme is reaching its natural end and he has to leave his post here in Bishkek.

Today was his last day in the office, tomorrow at 5am he will be leaving the country to be back in Austria. It took a lot to him to phisically leave the building, it seemed as there was always something missing or something wrong in the situation. I saw in his eyes the same desperate bafflement of someone who suddenly lost his place on hearth I felt when I had to leave my desk in Vienna.

It's an hearthbreaking moment that you can't understand if you did never really love your job and jobplace.

You suddenly feel like you just woke up from a fascinating dream where you were a happy and active person; now you're awake, and you feel as having to restart from the very beginning. It happened to me after just six months of work round the clock in Vienna, I cannot even imagine how could it be after two years.

Anyway, he left with a huge baggage of souvenirs and pictures, and the intimate hope to finding a way to come back here working, someday.He storaged here in Bishkek many things for this reason.

Most of all he left me his mountain bike.

I will take good care of it and I hope I will be able to give it back to him very soon, so we'll go climbing, rafting and byking together here in this fascinating country.

Nookat Report

Or, what they will never tell you about this country.

Last week I attended my first press conference since I am working with OHCHR. This press conference is culminating four months of joint investigations between OHCHR and the Office of the Kyrgyz Ombudsman started on October 2008 after the riot in Nookat (a town in the South-Western Osh Oblast of Kyrgyzstan) and the subsequent tough repression enforced by police forces and local courts. At my arrival the report was already written but Dyma (Kyrgyz Ombudsman’s team), Erlan (NUNV and Legal Officer, OHCHR) and Saltanat (my direct supervisor and National Program Officer, OHCHR) informed me about what had happened. To use the words of the official report (hereby translated from Russian):

“Annual celebration of Orozo-Ait and Kurman-Ait is a state-wide event throughout the whole territory of the country. (…) The festivities include the prayer (ait-namaz), cooking and distribution of food, including free meals. Starting from 2005 such celebrations have been conducted in the center of Nookat under the guidance of local public administration and usually were accompanied by free distribution of pilaf and drawing of prizes. (…) But on October 1, 2008 the celebration of Orozo-Ait in the center of Nookat, which has become a tradition since 2005 based on the permission of authorities, was unexpectedly prohibited. (…) While the local population was informed by the authorities on the celebration at the stadium beforehand, actual actions on prohibition were completely unexpected by the citizens and resulted in a spontaneous rally near the building of the rayon public administration. The verdict of the court says that the mass disorder was a planned and organized event (but written communications from the staff of law enforcement structures say the opposite). (…) According to the witnesses, the indignation of people increased after they saw faces covered with blood, as well as people who were detained and beaten by the police in the administration building. The rally turned into a forced confrontation only when the police started to disperse the people with batons. (…) According to those detained, ten of them were shown a video, which recorded their presence in the center of Nookat on October 1, 2008. At the same time these video tapes did not contain any evidence of their complicity in mass disorder and other crimes that other detainees were incriminated with. (…) In addition to the State Committee of National Security and the Rayon Police Department, the lists of Hizb-ut-Tahrir religious extremists are also available in urban and rural municipalities (…) the religious extremists’ lists included complete families, minor children and aged citizens. Nobody knows what criteria were applied by local authorities for the compilation of these lists, as according to the available information, each representative of local administration has his own subjective concept of that. Among the criteria which were used to discover Hizb-ut-Tahrir members, the representative of rayon public administration used the following: wearing of hijab, a beard, presence of prohibited literature as well as behavior that differs from the behavior of other people. (…) The lists complied by urban and rural municipalities were later used for repressions, though the people that were in the lists never knew about that. The case does not say anything on the registration of detention on the Nookat Rayon Police Department, while all those convicted claim that the first detentions, interrogation without the presence of the lawyer and the beatings happened in the Nookat Police department. The extracts from the case which show the dates of detention and the dates of court warrant are evidence of a gross violation of the 48-hour detention period without the warrant of the court. According to the population of Nookat, the representative of law-enforcement agencies asked them to pay money for the release of their relatives. Unlawful expropriation of property and money was also performed in respect of the detained persons. Those interviewed claimed that the police officers had been detaining the population of Nookat rayon until October 15, 2008 and asked them for the buyout to stay free. (…) According to the detainees and the people from Nookat, the law-enforcement officers insisted that those detained write a denunciation on 20 persons. One of those detained, who was unable to withstand the torture, called one fictitious named. After the law enforcement officers checked this information and realized that it was false, they again tortured the person under investigation. (…) There were no records on injured policemen either in the Crime record book or the Book of information messages. The relatives of those detained were not informed by the investigation bodies on the facts of their detainment. The relatives of those detained also informed that they were not allowed to meet the detainees during the investigation. They saw them for the first time during the court proceedings. (…) One of those arrested was unable to walk due to the torture (…). Despite bad health status of the persons who were tortured, as well as visible signs of bodily damage, the court, which had issued an arrest warrant in respect of those detained, did not take into account these circumstances and failed to take any action.

Tortures and cruel treatment

1. Tortures were applied during all states of investigations and consideration of the case: at the moment of detention, during the transportation, during the stay in pre-trial facilities of State Committee of National Security, in the court building – the tortures were stopped only after the detainees were transferred to the pre-trial facility No 5 (institution No 25) of the Ministry of Justice.
2. The police officers pointed their machine guns to the chests of two detainees without any resistance from them during their arrest, all this happened in the eyes of their aged parents. One person was hit with buttstock on his head and placed in the car being unconscious.
3. First tortures were applied to the detainees during their arrival and stay in Nookat Rayon Police Department.
4. During the transportation of the detainees from the Nookat Police Department to Osh they were put on the floor between the seats and were beaten with the machinegun buttstocks, kicked and not allowed to raise their heads. All along the road they were put their faces down and the policemen were placing their feet on the heads of the detainees.
5. The following types of tortures were applied: beating on the places which had the traces of previous blows; beating with batons on feet; suspending the persons under investigation with their hands behind their back and beating on their body; dousing with cold and boiling water; absence of medical aid after the injury; “learning” the Kyrgyz anthem and singing the anthem 5 times a day in the premises of the State Committee of National Security; putting plastic bags on the head; burning the beard with a lighter; tearing the beard; placement in the cold concrete room without clothes, where the floor is poured with chlorinated water ankle deep up to 3 days; prohibition to use the toilet; passing through special corridor; tearing the fingernails; putting the gas mask before or after the press-up exercises, sometimes they let the cigarette smoke in the air filter; pouring vodka in the throat, beating with palms on the ears (those who suffered from such tortures reported the bleeding from their areas and subsequent loss of hearing).
6. The tortures were applied with the following purpose: the victims were asked to identify the persons on the photos that were shown to them; to write a denunciation on 20 people; to ask forgiveness from the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (which is a widespread practice of special services in Uzbekistan), to make the victims learn the anthem in the Kyrgyz language (people in the south are often Uzbek, and sometimes don’t even know Kyrgyz language), to sign admissive evidence, punish and humiliate.
7. During the confinement in the punishment cell the persons under investigation were forced to stand from 6 AM to 11 PM, when the people tried to sit, they were punished.
8. One of the officers of the State Committee of National Security was keeping a part of the torn beard in his pocket and was showing it to other detainees and was saying that he was going to keep it as a memory.
9. Among the tortures the detainees mentioned “Afghani position”, this was the position when staff State Committee of National Security made the detainees stand for a long time with semiflexed legs on tiptoes, with their hands behind their head. As soon as the victims tried to stand in a normal position or tried to stand straight, they were severely beaten.
10. The procedures of “special room” (two of the accused thought that this was an operation room). This is a room in the premises of the Osh Department of the State Committee of National Security, it has a metallic trestle bed; the persons under investigation were placed on it belly down, handcuffed to the legs for their immobilization and then beaten on their bare feet with batons, beaten on the whole body, on their legs and on the opposite side of their knees with batons.
11. Tortures applied to two detained women had their own specificity. At first the investigators cut the plaits of two women under the pretext that they may hang themselves (both women had four minor children). On the next day the officer of the Department of the State Committee of National Security (SCNS) (name omitted) ordered to shave their heads with the razor. Their heads were shaven for the second time before the session of the court. When one woman informed the investigators during the beating that she had two months’ pregnancy, the staff of the SCNS started to insult her and deliberately cause the miscarriage. For this purpose they handcuffed the pregnant woman, asked her to lift coat rack with concrete base and hold it in her hands for a long time. When she became unable to hold it anymore and dropped it, they beat her on her fingers, two her fingers were dislocated. Systematic beatings and placements in a cell resulted in a miscarriage, after that she was first brought to the Osh maternity home; the doctor there offered her first medical aid and said that should stay in bed. Instead of that she was placed in a cell without outer coat and footwear ankle deep in water with chlorine 10 cm deep. This resulted in high temperature and bleeding, again she received emergency medical aid and the doctors said that she had to stay in bed and undergo ultrasonic tests. Instead of that officer of SCNS (name omitted) again put her in the cell. The investigators demonstrated to this woman how they beat other detainees and even made her dance waltz with one of them as she was handcuffed. Both women were beaten with batons or fists on their heads. Both women have scars on their heads. When one of them asked for water she was offered to drink urine. Five times a day they were brought before the men, asked to remove their kerchief and sing the Kyrgyz anthem. The women were also forced to clean the toilet and other rooms of the pre-trial prison of the SCNS.
12. Tortures were also applied to persons who had some mental disabilities. Father of one of such persons managed to get a medical certificate for his son confirming that he was mentally sane as he was afraid that his son would be unable to get married. After beatings by the staff of the pre-trial prison of the SCNS this person was always swearing, the officers were coming back and started to beat him again. According to other detainees, he did not realize what had been going on and that his action would result in other beatings – therefore he was beaten more often than the others.
13. One of the torture methods in the Osh oblast police department is the electric chair. The detainee is put on a metallic chair, his hands are tied to the armrest, they put a metallic circle with electric wire on his head and demonstrate the readiness to connect it to the mains.
14. The following injuries were recorded after the tortures: concussion of the brain, rib fractures, bruises, scars, worsened sight and hearing, inability to bend the knees and sit, finger displacement.

I think that for today is enough, this post is already too long.

Tomorrow, maybe, I will tell you what happened in front of the court. Just one tip for those who were so brave to read all the above: don’t leave room for hope. Not yet.

PS: today I will participate to the briefing of the Inquiry Commission under the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic on Nookat events. Apart from me, National, International, Regional, Bilateral and Multilater institution are expected to come and discuss about the report you red in this post. I will keep you posted on what will come next.

House Quest

22/02/09

Note: This post has been written on the date specified in the very first lines, which could differ from publication date.


Nobody says looking for a flat is easy, but in my case it was. Might be because of the large offer of flat for rent and their medium-high quality, or maybe for the fear of continue paying 30$ per night in our temporary apartment, me and Federica – my former flat mate – we both found the “right flat” after just 3 days of house exploring. The previous one was, all in all, a good solution and at our arrival - when we finally get to enter (we arrived at 5am and our freelance driver had hard time opening the outer door of the building) – we were relieved of discovering into this warm, lovely and roomy flat our new house. Then, as always happen, we started noticing those small details that make your idea of looking soon for another flat a bit more attractive. To be honest, instead of warm I should have said hot; the apartment was totally hot round the clock and we were used to have snow out of the window and summer pajamas under the pillow. Secondly, after long and committed investigation we found out that the awful, intense and sudden smell wafting from time to time was originated somewhere somehow from the bathroom. Later on we discovered that this was not peculiar of the flat but a problem common to the majority of the houses, but I still believe that the strength of that specific aroma was outstanding. Finally, we soon discovered how difficult is living in a “temporary” condition; without opening the main luggage but just using the few things wisely elected to stay in the hand luggage “for any emergency” while supplies last, with no chance of buying furniture and stuff useful to make your stay more comfortable or goods to allow some home economics, you feel totally uneasy.
Probably some of you jumped on your seat while reading the rent price; well, don’t be surprised. Here in Bishkek (and in Central Asia in general) it’s common to pay from 450 up to 550 USD (plus expenses) for a double room flat (1 bedroom, 1 living room) in the center of the city. Families, on the other side, are usually paying around 750-850 for solutions more appropriate to their needs. The real estate market in this area is totally sick and prices are sky-high because the offer is usually limited both in quantity and in access; tenants are generally looking for businessman or foreign officers of international organizations to enter their houses, and the offer is according to this premise. Therefore, when fall decides to play it hard like in 2008 many people die from cold because of the lack of adequate housing or shelter (cfr: http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/804bb175b68baaf7c125667f004cb333/7483bfb5c44299fbc12569ce00494f2c?OpenDocument, http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article2065, and http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G00/443/37/PDF/G0044337.pdf?OpenElement). Of course people who cannot afford to leave in the city center move to the outskirt where prices drop down against high criminality rates and lack of social and health services.

Now I can understand a bit more why adequate housing is one of the main concern of my Office.